Kevin Poulsen

Kevin
Poulsen was among the most accomplished, multi-talented
hackers. He worked for SRI
International by day, and hacked at night under the handle "Dark
Dante". He trained to be
the complete hacker, and even taught himself lock picking.

Among
other things, Poulsen reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone
numbers for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual agency. When
the FBI started pursuing Poulsen, he went underground as a fugitive.
When he was featured on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, the
show's 1-800 telephone lines mysteriously crashed. He was finally
arrested in February, 1995.

Poulsen's best known hack was a takeover
of all of the telephone lines for Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM,
guaranteeing that he
would
be the 102nd caller, and winning a Porsche 944 S2.

In June 1994, Poulsen pleaded guilty to seven counts of mail,
wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice,
and was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $56,000
in restitution. It was the longest sentence ever given for hacking
up to that time. He also later pleaded guilty to breaking into
computers and obtaining information on undercover businesses run
by the FBI.